Page 34 of Siren's Game

But instead of in our direction, she is now dreamily looking at Luca, who is currently throwing a football rather shakily at one of the Walker brothers.

"See you later, Sweetheart," Asher says with a grin on his lips before pressing them against my temple. Then he jogs off, back to the players.

I look after him, my blood boiling. What a fucking asshole. What a—

"Here's your water." Mike hands me an ice-cold bottle, tearing my thoughts away from all the curses I'm conjuring up in my head. "Whoa, what's got you looking like Godzilla about to laser off a city?"

"Nothing," I grumble and force the resting bitch expression off my face. When I look up at him again, I'm hopeful I’ve schooled my face to a more neutral one. "Everything is fine."

Asher

"Bethereinasecond," Kayla says hastily when I call let her know I'm waiting in front of her house. Then the call disconnects and I lower my phone, pushing it back into my pocket.

A second, however, turns into almost ten minutes until I see her familiar face pop around the corner to the elevator hall of her building.

"Sorry," she says breathlessly as she climbs into the car. I’m still surprised about how gracefully she manages to do that, considering the car’s height and the fact she’s wearing high heels. "The elevator took forever."

"You're fine," I answer, glancing at her before I start the car. "It's not like we have a fixed time we need to be there."

She makes an approving, humming sound in the back of her throat and buckles her seatbelt.

As I merge into traffic and check that my security teams’ car is behind us, I feel her eyes on me, and I can't help but glance at her from the corner of mine at each red traffic light.

She's wearing her hair completely straight again. There is no trace of the soft waves I saw at her place and I'm not sure why, but it bugs me. The little waves look adorable and suit her so much better than this boring, strict look.

Not that I’d tell her that.

A comfortable silence settles in the car until we arrive. I find two parking spots about a block away from the restaurant and pull into the first, watching my team take the second one before shooting Van a quick message to let him know the spectacle is about to begin.

"Wait in your seat," I tell Kayla before I jump out of the car and walk over to her side.

After our fun conversation regarding the rules of this fake relationship, I spent the night doing some research. I probably went through hundreds of articles and pictures, searching hashtags and the answers to her posts to have an idea of what I’m going to be dealing with and what comes with dating a Siren.

Imagine my shock when I found a whole ass website dedicated to trying to get pictures from under her or Millie's skirts. A. Whole. Goddamn. Website.

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg, because I also found posts about a now deleted website that had nudes and even whole porn videos with their faces, made with artificial intelligence.

The internet is a scary, disgusting place, but my little research truly opened my eyes to what I’d be getting into.

I don't see any photographers around yet, but I still step between the gap the open door leaves to hide her with my body as she gets out of the car. Just in case.

"Thank you," she murmurs softly and pats her skirt back into position. Now's the first time I actually get to look at her outfit and I whistle between my teeth.

She looks amazing. While I just threw on a black shirt, jeans and slipped into a leather jacket Van handed me to wear, she dressed up to the nines. Her long legs are covered by black tights, leading to her beige skirt and she's wearing a black top and brown leather jacket.

Maybe she was right and outfit coordinating was a good move. I look at our reflections on my cars side. I have to admit, we look really damn good together.

With a sigh, she rummages in her handbag until she finds her sunglasses. Right. The sun might already be setting but with the lightning chaos we’re about to face, it’s a smart move.

I let her step aside, then lean over the passenger seat to retrieve my cap. I tucked it between the seat and center console in preparation for our little outing but almost forgot about it.

I hate these things. I can never quite manage to wear them properly with my hair, at least whenever I wear it in a top knot like today.

"Here, let me help." Kayla reaches out her hands. I lean down a bit so she can reach better, and her gentle fingers help me tug my hair through the hole on the backside of the hat. I'm not sure how exactly she does it, but it sure as shit feels a lot better than when I force my hair through it the usual way.

"Thanks," I mumble and roll my shoulders as I straighten my back.

"Let's get this over with," Kayla says softly, sounding more resigned than annoyed, and roughly pulls my arm over her shoulder.

---